


Wicked

by Rashu89



Series: One Word Challenge [4]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Derek-centric, M/M, mentions of Kate Argent, mentions of Peter Hale - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-28
Updated: 2016-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-16 20:22:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5839738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rashu89/pseuds/Rashu89
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek had never been afraid of things like The Wicked Witch or fairy tales monsters until Kate happened. And Peter. But then, he met one Stiles Stilinski and everything changed. Well, almost everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wicked

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not completely satisfied with this one. It feels like I got sidetracked with the word "fear" instead but hopefully this is still okay.
> 
> Also, in my mind this is set sometime after the finale for season 4.
> 
> DISCLAIMER: Everything is mine from the plot to all the grammar/spelling mistakes and other typos. But not the guys...

Being born a werewolf with his own mother as an alpha, Derek grew up with little things that could scare him. That doesn't mean he was fearless though. Just that it seemed a bit difficult for him, if not simply ridiculous, to be afraid of monsters hiding under your bed or lurking in the shadows at night when he and almost his whole family were one of those supposed monsters. Of course, he was aware that there were legends and fairy tales about some supernatural beings who weren't as nice as the Hales, even amongst other werewolves packs, but Derek never really worried about them. Because if anything were to happen, he knew he would have his family, his pack, beside him and that was all the reassurance he ever needed. That is until that fateful day when he lost it all at the hands of Kate Argent.

 

When he thinks about Kate now, he can't believe he ever fell for her. Yes, she was a beautiful woman, older and more experienced, who had shown up at a moment in his life when he was at his most vulnerable. Not a good combination when you're a horny teenager grieving the loss of your first love, but if he had known back then that she was going to be his undoing, he would have done everything in his power to stay away from her and her cruel intentions. It doesn't matter that as a hunter it was her duty to track people of his kind and kill them when necessary. The way she had burned his home to the ground with his entire family trapped inside, including harmless humans and defenseless kids, could only be described as cruel. Wicked, even. To Derek, she then became like that witch from Oz, or the evil queen in Snow White, that used to give nightmares to some of his little cousins; bursting into his life and ruining everything he held dear on her path. From his ability to trust people to that innocent part of him who had believed his pack was invincible.

 

Unfortunately, he wasn't the only one to be damaged by Kate's actions. So were the few remaining members of his family; Laura developing a need to rescue everyone she thought could use her help, friends or not, while Cora, whose escape from the fire was still rather unclear to this day, had grown into this cold person, unable to get close to others. Yet, the one who turned out to be the most affected by the loss of their pack was probably Peter. His uncle had always been a bit... weird, for lack of a better word, and it was no secret that he used to take a certain pleasure into manipulating the people around him. But once those things were added to the trauma of witnessing the death of loved ones and nearly dying himself, they seemed to drag the man to his downfall. Gone was the uncle Peter who had once risked his life to save Derek's. All was left instead was a power hungry werewolf who didn't blink an eye as he killed his own niece in the sole purpose to get his revenge or so he said. It might as well have been just an excuse to steal that alpha position he had always envied from Talia. Either way, there was no doubt that something must have snapped inside Peter's head; changing him forever into that mentally unstable man whose wicked insanity had only served as a reminder for Derek that no one could be trusted. Not even family.

 

The thing is that when you're unable to give your trust to anyone, you usually end up alone and werewolves aren't meant to live on their own. Some do, either by choice or because of an unfortunate turn of events. but most of born werewolves are so used to the safety and comfort of a pack that they had difficulties to handle a life without one. Derek was no exception. Even if he liked to think otherwise he knew that, deep down, there was still a part of him desperately longing for something that had been ripped away from him so brutally that he doubted he would ever fully recover from it. Laura had helped but now that she was dead too, he found himself all alone and completely lost. So, naturally, when he met a young and recently bitten Scott, his first instinct was to latch onto the kid and make him pack as he knew that they would be stronger together. However, as much as he needed him and that the teenager needed his help in return, that was forgetting about Stiles.

 

Now, Derek isn't saying that it was the human's fault that it took nearly two years for he and the other werewolf to finally be on good terms and learn how to work alongside. This was more like a collective fail, mostly based on a lack of communication, misunderstandings and wrong choices. Things that could have certainly been avoided if the eldest hadn't spent the better part of the past few years building walls around himself, so thick and tall that there was no way in or out of it. And yet, it was Stiles, the small puny human as the teen liked referring to himself as, who managed the impossible. It was a slow and subtle process that neither of them had noticed it happening until that day when they had driven all the way to Mexico to save Scott from Kate who, as it turned out, had survived to her encounter with Peter from a couple of years back. Anyways. On that day, as Derek collapsed on the dirt ground after being shot, body leaning heavily against the van behind him, and watched Stiles make a stop for him, ( _the teenager clearly torn between going to his best friend and staying with the injured werewolf_ ), it suddenly became clear to him that they weren't mere acquaintances or allies anymore. Somehow, things had changed between them over the years and it wasn't only due to the facing near death situations together nor the mutual saving each other's life on several occasions thing.

 

It definitely helped, that's for sure, but half of that shift in their relationship, however you wanted to call it, had been caused by Stiles and his overwhelming personality. The way the teenager had never ceased to impress him with all of his knowledge and endless courage; always walking head first into danger even if, out of them all, he was the one who could get hurt the most easily and didn't even have the power to heal himself at that. There was also the fact that he was loyal to his friends yet, at the same time, refusing to follow them blindly and thus never showing any hesitation when he needed to call them out on their shit. Something he often did when it came to Derek and his plans, which the man actually appreciated for it reminded him of his lost family although he wouldn't dare to say it out loud. The same way he would never admit to being fond of some, more annoying sides of Stiles' personality. It wasn't like anyone needed to know this anyways. Besides, it was so much easier to complain about how loud the human was, or his bad habit of sticking his nose where it didn't belong, than to accept that there was a certain wickedness in the other that he couldn't help but to feel attached to.

 

To the werewolf, who had seen enough wickedness in the past few years to last him a lifetime, this was a word that normally rhymed with evil and crazy. Yet, whenever he was associating Stiles to it, its meaning would instantly lighten. He would no longer think of being locked up into the basement of the burnt out shell that was left of his childhood home while having to listen to Kate's never-ending gloating over successfully deceiving him and decimating his family in one go. He wouldn't be thinking of cold-blooded eyes staring straight into his own as his uncle told him about how he had no other choice but to kill Laura either. All of those things would just vanish from his mind the moment he related that word to the teenager whose wicked side was closer to mischief than anything else. Sure, his sarcasm and shameless teasing could be annoying but he was never truly mean in his words or actions for the sake of hurting others. Even after the whole nogitsune thing, it had been clear to Derek that whatever darkness may be hiding inside the human's heart, Stiles wasn't the type to simply give in to it without a fight and that was more than he could say about Peter or Kate.

 

Still, the fact that this was part of the things he did like the most about the younger male remained something he wasn't entirely comfortable with, for all kind of reasons. He was even less inclined to be okay about it now that he had finally realized all that it obviously implied. Because, even if it had taken one Stiles Stilinski to break down the walls around his heart and make him comfortable with the idea that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life alone; that it was okay to trust and rely on others; or that good things could happen to him too, in the end Derek was still unable to get over the biggest fear in his life. A fear that may have first started to haunt him when he was a little kid but wasn't just the irrational product of the darkest corners of his imagination. Not since he had been forced to experience it in so many occasions already that he knew how much it hurt. And it wasn't the kind of fear that once you'd faced it, you could learn how to overcome it and move on either. If anything, it was the exact opposite as it simply made you realize that it was, indeed, a real possibility and there was no getting used to the pain it brought into your heart. The werewolf's situation was even worse seeing that his said fear, which he had assumed to be gone after Laura's death, had only been intensified by those wicked monsters who had taken all the most important things in his life away from him. Well... All but one.

 

And that was precisely why, despite how much he hated the idea of leaving behind the only person he had allowed to get close to him in years and wanted to keep by his side, where he could protect him, he would rather not stay and let that fondness he felt for the young human develop into something else; something deeper. Because he knew that if anything were to happen to Stiles then, he would be broken beyond repair. And maybe, in a way, he was just selfish but, if he had to choose between being selfish and living in the permanent fear that someone dear to him could end up dying by his fault again? Then he would take selfishness any day. Even if it also meant he would always be worrying about the other, wondering what kind of trouble he and his friends had gotten themselves into. Or wouldn't be able to forget the way the teenager sometimes smiled at him; amber eyes sparkling with amusement and perfectly shaped lips curling into that small, annoyingly adorable wicked grin he was sure to miss once he'd walked out of Beacon Hills, to probably never come back.

 

+END+

 


End file.
